Rapunzel
by nyteri
Summary: I just realized that two fictional characters remind me of each other. Sorry if it sucks, but please CC, and tell me how to improve my writing style. I feel like I'm narrarating Twilight, it's too dramatic. Anyway... please read and review. T cause I'm paranoid.


**SIGH. Just… sigh. So… I was looking around the 39 Clues archive… And listening to The Phantom of the Opera…And I realized, I was a total fan girl when I first started my other story. You can just… tell. It's BAD. So, I'm going to finish that story, and when it IS finished, I'm going to EDIT. Heavily. **

**But for now… I thought I'd redeem myself. So, I give you… the **_**hopefully**_** better one-shot… **

_**Rapunzel.**_

"Life, love, and death all start the same way-full of dreams, hopes and honesty. But as you go on, you discover horrible secrets. And then it ends.

That's a horrible way to think of it. But it's true."

* * *

I thought about the fairytale _Rapunzel_. If I remembered correctly, that was the story about the princess who was stolen away from her family. Stolen away from fame and fortune and a bright, happy future. She didn't deserve the hand she got, but there was nothing she could do. And for a long time, she believed, whole-heartedly, that she was a nobody. She resented her care-taker, but she believed that she was nothing and deserved the chores and punishments.

And then one day, she escaped. She saw the world, and discovered herself, and… she discovered that she was a princess. She left her care-taker to live with her true family. She had her old life back, the life with everything her heart could desire. A love, a family, no financial problems… and she deserved every single bit of her new life.

In books and movies, that's where the story ends. A happily ever after. But this is real life, and fairytale endings are hard to come by. Rapunzel knew this. She expected it, and counted the days until it came. Some might've called her pessimistic, but in truth, she was being smart.

I stared out the tinted window and thought contentedly, _And if there's one thing Rapunzel excels at, it's being smart._

* * *

Amy Cahill felt the sweat slide down her forehead as she pushed herself to do ten more minutes on the treadmill. She _needed_ to prepare for the Vespers. She _needed_ to protect Dan. _She needed to protect her new family. _

When the ten minutes was up, Amy plopped down on the still-moving belt of the treadmill. She was panting after her two-mile run, but two weeks ago she'd been panting after a mile and a half. She was making progress, but she knew that she had a lot more ground to cover before she was ready.

But Amy knew that there was something wrong with her plan to get in shape- Dan wouldn't.

He showed zero interest in learning to ski, or kicking a door open, or testing out the newest espionage gear the Cahills had issued. It was like their personalities had switched.

At the start of the clue hunt, she'd been just like him. Martial Arts left her bored unless someone was threatening her with it. Kicking a door open was useless- there were doorknobs for a reason. And espionage was a long-ago fantasy in her childhood. Now, Dan was the one slyly avoiding her workout times in the gym, he was the one refusing to watch _another _Martial Arts Training DVD, and he was the one whose only interest in espionage was to torment or blackmail her.

There were moments that he acted like himself, but he just wasn't the same. It couldn't have been that he _missed _their old life? She knew that she sure as heck didn't. She didn't miss being neglected every Christmas, birthday, and Thanksgiving. She knew Dan didn't miss being called, 'Devil Child'.

She was interrupted by the chime of her cell phone. Pulling it out, she saw that Ian was wanting to video-chat with her.

Trying to ignore the flutter she felt somewhere in her stomach, Amy wiped her hand across her forehead, hurriedly tried to smooth down her hair, and ran her tongue over her teeth. She took a deep breath and pressed 'Talk'.

"Hello, Amelia." Ian grinned at her. After the clue hunt, he'd lost his snarky attitude, but seemed to always be looking for something to replace the nickname 'Love'. After a while, he'd given up and decided to just call her by her full name.

"Hey, Ian." She grinned back, but the happiness quickly slid from her face. "Did something-?"

Ian cut her off. "No, Amelia. Nothing's happened. Can't a friend call just because?"

Amy rolled her eyes. "You _never_ call just because, Ian. What is it if there's no problem?"

Ian stayed silent for a few minutes. Amy felt guilt bubble in her stomach. Just as she was about to apologize, Ian spoke. "Has Daniel… been acting strange? Not like his old self?" Amy looked at him in curiosity.

"Yeah, why? Has Natalie been acting… different?"

Ian coughed and ran a hand through his hair. "That's certainly one way to put it. I think we both can agree that it's not… adolescence, if you follow me, but that it was caused by the Clue Hunt." Amy nodded. "…And there's nothing we can do to help right now."

Amy stared at him. He did not just say that. "Wha-? Nothing we can do? We can do everything! We're freaking Cahills!"

Ian simply looked at her, with a small smile on his face. Amy felt herself blush, and tried desperately to remember Evan, Evan, Evan…

Amy forgot what Evan looked like.

"Then what do you suppose we should do?" Ian asked, keeping the small smile on his face, but looking away from the phone. For some reason, the smile infuriated her. It was almost smug, but mostly content and calm. And she wanted to smack it off his face.

"Like I said, everything. I'm bringing Dan back. He's going to have a good life. So am I. So are you and Natalie. Fiske and Nellie are going to have good lives." I said, working myself into a rant.

"Love, you're starting to sound like a life-coach." Ian snickered. Amy, however, froze. A strange, warm feeling spread through her whole body, and she felt her mouth smiling on its own. She bit down on her cheek, trying desperately to stop the smile.

He'd called her Love.

Ian seemed to realize his mistake as he took in her strange, red-purple face, and bizarre expression of glee and pain. He mistook it as glee that she had something to blackmail him with, and the pain of being reminded of the heartbreak he'd caused her.

He rushed to explain himself. "I'm sorry; it's a force of habit-"

Amy blinked, her expression clearing, and her face growing pale. _A force of habit._ "It's fine." She said, forcing a grin. _You haven't called me that since the Clue Hunt. What, is it a force of habit to call every girl 'Love'? _

Ian frowned. "Um, I need to leave… I've got a big day tomorrow, and it's 1:45 am over here… So, goodnight. E-mail me that list of things we can do when you get them, Amelia." Ian smiled a little.

Amy nodded, still feeling cold and used.

Ian seemed to sense this, even if he couldn't understand where it was coming from. "Amy? I think I've found your nickname. You're Rapunzel from now on. Goodnight, sleep tight, sweet dreams, de beaux rêves, dulces sueños, sladké sny-"

Amy interrupted him. "English, French, Spanish, but what was the last one?" She had t grin slightly at their game.

"That, my dear Rapunzel, was Czech. Sladké sny."

"Sladké sny, Ian. And I _will _send you that e-mail." Amy almost closed the video, but something stopped her. "Ian… why is my nickname Rapunzel?"

Ian smiled his famous I-know-something-you-don't-know smile. "You just remind me of her, Amy."

**Whew… Okay. Better? Worse? I wrote this in two hours, so it probably needs editing… I honestly don't think I improved. **

**I almost didn't put the first few lines at the beginning, because I was planning for a much darker story… but, I don't know, it just seemed like it belonged there… Even though it has nothing to do with the story itself. Maybe later I'll add another chapter to go along with the quote. Maybe. It kind of depends on if anybody actually likes this. **

**So… Review? Please? I'm trying so hard to improve… I don't want to be the weird fan girl on the archive… I hope I'm not, at least. **


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